Reflecting On 2018 And What To Expect In The New Year

04/01/2019

Welcome back to my first post of 2019!

I’m never sure if I’m going to write one of these posts, even though they’re one of my favourites to read personally. I love reading about everything that someone has achieved that year, and what their goals and ideas are for the new year.

I guess I worry that I’ll come to write the post, only to realise that’s I’ve not actually achieved much.

Well looking back, that’s definitely not true!

So what have I achieved this year?

2018 has probably been one of my best years so far; I’ve not only managed to achieve the things I wanted to with my blog, but I feel I’ve grown a lot as a person too.

Graduated from university

So as you might have seen on my instagram, I graduated from university with a first class honours degree this year, and it was honestly one of the proudest moments of my life.

I really didn’t enjoy my time at university, and my mental health took a bit of a hit because of it. With everything that was going on, I didn’t think I’d be able to achieve a first –even though that was my goal.

So when I logged on to check my grade, I was shocked to see that I’d actually done it!

Walking across that stage, it suddenly dawned on me exactly what I’ve achieved over the past few years. I’m not the same person I was even a year ago and I’ve grown as a person; I have a lot more self confidence and I know who I am and what I want from my life.

It’s just a shame I haven’t grown in person too – being 5″1 is really inconvenient at times!

Became self employed

Just before graduating, I finally took the plunge and registered as self employed!

This has been a dream of mine for years, but I’ve been way too scared to actually take the risk. I really struggle with having the confidence to pitch brands and don’t even get me started on things like taxes – I’m dreading having to do that for the first time.

Even though it’s been a difficult first few months because of uni, I think I’m finally starting to find a routine that works for me and I can feel my confidence growing.

I even gave an interview for the Yorkshire Post about turning my blog into a business and highlighting how autism can be beneficial to this – which was terrifying at the time but amazing to see once it was printed!

Tripled my blog views

I set a goal at the start of 2018 of getting 10k views on my blog that year. I’d had 8k the year before, so I thought it would be an achievable goal while still growing and improving.

I hit that goal in the first 6 months!

By the end of the year, I had just under 35k views – over triple my original goal.

Almost all of them were from Pinterest, and I’m so glad I started to use it for my blog. This year I’m hoping to get to 50k, which is a number that both scares and motivates me.

I know there are some people out there who get that in a month; but one of the things I’ve been working on is to concentrate on my own content, rather than comparing myself to other people.

So what do I want to achieve in 2019?

Ebooks

I’ve been working on my first ebook (using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog) for a few months now, and I can’t wait to finally publish it!

I was originally wanting to get it out before Christmas, but uni deadlines and some problems with the project meant I’ve had to push it back a bit.

I’m tentatively saying it will be ready by the end of January/early February.

I’ve got so many other workbooks and ebooks planned out this year; on topics like self care, blogging advice and setting up your own business.

Pinterest coaching

This is something I’ve had so many requests to start doing, and I spent most of Christmas planning out how I could make it work.

I’ll go into more detail closer to the launch, but I’ll be offering 1-1 sessions where we work through a selection of modules (either in person, on the phone or via email) that are tailored to you and your needs.

I’ve been trialing this with the lovely Bella from Bluebells and Trees, and she’s seen her blog traffic double since we started working together!

Podcast

I’ve been wanting to start a second channel for nearly a year now, but I wasn’t sure which format would be best.

I created a series of YouTube clips for Sheffield Futures back in the summer, and I quickly realised that video wasn’t for me.

I love being behind the camera, but I’m awkward af when you point it my way!

Then a few people suggested I could give podcasts a try, as that way my face isn’t on camera and I don’t have to worry about remembering a script/what I want to say.

The theme of the podcast will be mental health and it will be called Mindful Me – thank you so much to Beth Ashley for helping me come up with the name!

If you have any particular topic you’d love for me to cover (either on the podcast or blog), feel free to drop me a message – I’m always looking for content inspiration!

Instagram revival

Last year I pretty much just gave up on Instagram – I was fed up of the lack of growth and it was taking up a lot of time and effort to create content which didn’t seem to have any payoff.

However I realised that I can’t expect to get engagement when I’m not engaging with other people myself.

So this year I’m going to work on posting more regularly (especially to stories!) and engaging with other people – both on my feed and via hashtags.

Although saying that, it depends on the algorithms and how much they end up changing the app.

I was one of the lucky ones who didn’t get the so called “bug” which changed the feed into a stories wannabe. However I saw enough videos and screenshots to know that if they change it to that full time, I’ll be deleting the app right away.

That’s why my blog will always be my main priority; I’m in complete control over how it looks, how it works and I don’t have to worry about algorithms randomly ruining the number of people who see my content.

Oh my gosh congrats on everything that you achieved, especially with graduating from uni! And reading this makes me really want to give Pinterest a go again but I’m still not too sure how to use it… So I’ll be keeping an eye out for your coaching!

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HI THERE!

Thanks for stopping by! I’m a twenty-five-year-old digital media graduate with a passion for writing and a desire to change the way we view mental health and autism. I’ve owned jademarie.co.uk for nearly two years now, and its slowly changed from a place where I would brain dump whatever was going through my head that day, into a place where people can come for help, advice and hopefully a bit of a laugh. I do occasionally come out with a witty sentence or two. Mostly by accident.